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Press release from UT on the new hire:
Austin - Patrick Suddes, former associate director of football operations at the University of Alabama, has been named to the newly-created position of director of player personnel at The University of Texas, head coach Mack Brown announced Thursday.
"When I was growing up, The University of Texas was always one of the programs that I thought about as a great place to be because of its tradition and history as a winning program," Suddes said. "This is the only job I would have left the Alabama program for. I think being able to grow within a system and building something new here is an opportunity I couldn't pass up."
In his role, Suddes will serve as the point person on all of the Longhorns' recruiting efforts, as well as coordinate the Texas Football camps and High School Coaches Clinic.
"I worked for Coach (Nick) Saban for years and learned everything I know from him," Suddes said. "I can't thank him enough for all of the great opportunities he gave me. Everyone at Alabama was great to work with, and I appreciate all of them so much. But, when this came up, I was really interested in using what I learned and taking it somewhere else and trying to help out in whatever way I can."
Suddes comes to Texas after spending the last six seasons at his alma mater, Alabama, including the last five as associate director of football operations. In that role, his duties included supervising and planning the annual coaching clinic, coordinating team travel, overseeing youth and high school camps, team practice organization, overseeing the annual team banquet and the organization and evaluation of the walk-on program.
"I'm really passionate about not just helping to find and recruit the best prospects, but getting to know the kids," Suddes said. "I think it's key in this day and age because there are a lot of good players out there, but I really like being able to sit down and see what a player's makeup is.
"I think that's an exciting part for me. Having been in the pros and coming back to college, that's why I like college so much, you have such an impact on a player going from high school to college and hopefully going to the NFL. When they get to the NFL, they're pretty much set in their ways, but in college, you can really make an impact in a kid's life, especially coming to a place like this with so much pride and tradition. It's a big selling point."
Prior to his time in football operations, Suddes served one year as associate director of recruiting and video services where he oversaw all day-to-day recruiting operations, collected and prepared recruiting film for coaches evaluation, maintained the team recruiting board, helped organize and plan all recruiting events such as junior day and prospect visits, and oversaw all organization of the summer camps.
"We are so excited to have Patrick joining our staff," head coach Mack Brown said. "He's a guy that is very passionate about recruiting and building a team. He has a great deal of experience in recruiting and player personnel both at the college and pro levels. Everyone we talked to said he's the guy you need, and then Patrick knocked us out in his interview. He's a very personable guy, but he's also aggressive and compe ive in his approach. I know he's a guy that will come right in and hit the ground running, which is exactly what we need. I think he's the perfect fit to build and lead our player personnel department.
"I can't thank DeLoss (Dodds) and Bill (Powers) enough for supporting us and providing us the resources to have the best people in place to help us evaluate and recruit the top prospects. This new area will be critical in the continued growth of our program, and I'm excited to be a part of its development in the years to come."
"This is a great opportunity for Patrick in his new role as director of player personnel at the University of Texas," Alabama head coach Nick Saban said. "He's been on the staffs with us at LSU, in Miami with the Dolphins, and here at Alabama, and he has always done an excellent job with every responsibility he's had. I'm sure he'll do the same at Texas. We appreciate all of his hard work and dedication in terms of contributing to the success we've had through the years."
Suddes spent two seasons under Nick Saban with the Miami Dolphins, including 2005 as a defensive assistant, and 2006 as an offensive assistant. In both positions he was responsible for quality control, including breakdown and scouting reports of opponents, organizing game plans and self-scouting.
"I had a chance to be around Pat when he was with the Dolphins," said Longhorn Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams. "He was one of those ambitious young guys that was always working and doing anything he could to help the team. I'm not surprised to see he's worked his way up in the profession and had so much success. Coach Brown only hires the best, so it's exciting to have him at Texas."
In Miami, he worked with the secondary and ran the scout team offense and special teams as a defensive assistant, while working with running backs and running the scout team defense and special teams as an offensive assistant. During the offseason, he also worked in the scouting department, editing free agent and rookie film.
"The great thing about his experiences is he's worked on both the football operations end of things and on the player personnel end of things from a recruiting standpoint administratively, so he's got the unique ability to understand the full scope of Division I college football administration," said Michigan Associate AD for Football Mike Vollmar, who worked with Suddes for three years at Alabama. "He's a young guy, he's very, very talented, and he's a tireless worker. He'll do a great job."
A 2005 graduate of Alabama, Suddes began his career in 2004 as a recruiting intern at LSU where he assisted in day-to-day recruiting operations and quality control on offense and defense.
"First of all, when you think of Coach Brown, you think great coach, but what you hear all the time is great character, great leadership, and I think that's important," Suddes said. "This is someone you can really rally behind. I'm very excited to work for him. Everything about him is always positive. He's won before, he knows what it takes, he knows the system and what it takes to get there. That's exciting to go from one winning coach to another."
